Share: Last weekend the historic, and locally-famous ‘Marie Louise’ Hair Salon in Enmore was finally open to the public to see inside. I think it was all the *fabulous* pink and purple that subconsciously influenced my colour-combination choice that day…

These women are already accomplished at machine sewing, and so we’re very excited about what we can produce together over the coming weeks. We had a great first session together on Wednesday: getting to know each other, learning English terms for garment production, and I’m slowly being taught some Arabic phrases. Fun times!

Then this was me yesterday, when I met up with my Vice-Chair, David Hardie and we continued final preparations for The Social Outfit as this year comes to a close. Things are slowing down after what has been a very *exciting* and busy year; but we’re not quite finished up yet… and here’s hoping there’s still more *good* news to come before the business-end of 2013. xo

On Saturday last weekend, we went to a dear friend’s 40th birthday. Given the time of year, the theme was ‘Día de Muertos’ (Day of the Dead) and/or Mexican. The Hawaiian First Officer and I decided we wanted to go down the costume route of paying homage to great Mexico moments and/or people.

As I am sure you’ll agree, the Hawaiian First Officer took the theme of celebrating the 1968 Mexico Olympics with gusto. This montage is an absolute *gif favourite* of mine! I’m thinking that gold medal was won for retro-dancing-boxing, yes?!

Now you best be a little warned about the next set of photos…

I went as ‘Ugly Betty‘ because I think she’s a gorgeous Mexican woman; she’s cute; and, I always thought her fashion was fabulous from the get-go. The thing is, it turns out that if I put fake braces and teeth in, I look almost *nothing* like Ugly Betty and just closer to scary! As my dear brother said when he saw these photos today, “Yeeesh. You look sort of dead.” So not cute. But I still pay my homage to Betty; I realise my entire wardrobe is built for her; and, we had a great time!

Also, turns out – again, perhaps not that surprisingly – I’m a full-time smiler, so fake teeth are just really annoying after more than a minute. Did I mention I really like talking too, which makes a mouth-guard at a party *very* annoying!

Here’s the Birthday Lady, Antonia (who is also on The Social Outfit’s Board). Her glitter make-up was *wonderful* … And fake eyelashes on both top and bottom? Yes please!

This photo below is Friday evening last week, hanging out with friends…

And finally, here’s me the Saturday the weekend before, when a friend asked to interview me about my love of Ken Done (he’s studying film-making). And whenever I hear the words, “Ken Done” I naturally turn to some of my most favourite Australian vintage gear…

Show/Share: Another week to catch you up on, and I wanted to start particularly with this lovely photo:

Check out some of the young people at our Fairfield High School fashion project, hard at work on the sewing machines. To think that they’d never been on machines before, and just four sessions later here they are: super keen to learn, to have a go, and already sewing their own garments! This project is really such a pleasure: the young people are really engaged and fun, and working with Emma from WEFT shop is fantastic learning for us all. But before I tell you more about Fairfield, let’s start back at Wednesday…

This was me on Wednesday last week when The Social Outfit was invited to the launch of the Marrickville Community Fund in the evening. Given that we’d love to set up shop in the Newtown/Enmore area longer-term (thus next to, or in, the Marrickville LGA), we loved being invited to this new fundraising initiative of the Sydney Community Foundation. We wish them all the best with their fund, and the projects they are looking to support. You can read more about them here.

Then of course on Thursday Emma and I were back at Fairfield High School working with the great bunch of young people who signed up for our project. Here’s Emma as we were on the public transport routes; she had a great *vintage flight attendant fashion vibe* happening that day…

Clearly there was also a subconscious memo to us both about blazers, and some sort of ‘semi professional’ fashion approach…

Next up on Friday I had the pleasure of welcoming a new volunteer to The Social Outfit group. I’ll give you the full update on her soon, but in the meantime, please meet Mathura Sinnappurajar. We’re so very pleased to have you involved, Mathura!

Friday’s outfit was one of those times where the ‘look’ kind of made itself as I went along; I just kept trying to add more yellow and blue, then more blue and yellow… until I ended up looking like a 1980s real estate agent? Bank Teller? Whatever it is, those *high* jacket shoulder pads were pretty fun!

Tell: Ken Done vintage glasses, handmade earrings and necklaces, ‘Skirtmaster Sydney’ jacket from op shop, ‘Back to the Future‘ vintage brooch (that still has the Hawaiian First Officer’s full name and address on it from the 1980s! Prized possession!), Dragstar silk shirt, Uniqlo skivvy from Japan, vintage belt from the UK, Anthea Crawford skirt from op shop, The Social Studio digital print leggings, Happy Socks and Fluevog boots.

Then on Friday evening I was treated by my friend Althea to my first ever manicure; we went to this fantastic Korean nail place in Strathfield. The shop has this huge TV screen playing K-pop the whole time. Naturally, in celebration, I had a *touch* of sparkles added to my ‘nail art’! Here’s me and my nails out for lunch on Saturday with friends…

And finally, I found this bag in an op shop in Mornington a few months ago. I loved the fun design with the crest, and handle, but what really sold me was the label inside. It reads: “It’s Sheldon with the Lucky Cent. N.S.W’, and there’s the *lucky* Australian one cent coin in its own little pocket. Classic! So let me finish here with many *LUCKY* wishes to us all for this week ahead! xo xo

Show/Share: What a busy week! And, it’s set to be like that for a little while, with many plans and preparations underway at The Social Outfit. So let’s catch you up on this last week, shall we?

On Monday I was invited to speak with participants attending the School for Social Entrepreneurs ‘Accelerator’ Program. It was a lively session in which we discussed leadership style, taking social action and my hopes for The Social Outfit. I really enjoyed meeting the group of 15 people; all leading projects on issues they care about.

On Tuesday I had some important meetings, about a project The Social Outfit will be announcing very soon. I can’t wait to tell you all about this, and it won’t be long until I can share all the fun; I promise!

Nina also showed us about draping as a fashion technique. What’s great about draping is that it is easy to have a go, and really, there are no mistakes. We’re using fabric that’s been donated by Celia at Dragstar; it’s just a plain cotton perfect to explore different draping methods with, as you can see…

Here’s what the students came up with after working with Nina. They took to the workshop with absolute *gusto* and loved making shapes that look elegant. It’s harder to see, but the third mannequin from the left is actually about draping on men’s pants, and men’s hats and scarves. We had a great time together, and Emma and I can’t wait to continue working with the young people. Thanks for being involved too, Nina! xo

And on to Saturday. Thanks to some volunteer *brilliance* I worked on The Social Outfit‘s upcoming event we’re heading towards in October. Long-term supporter Meredith Turnbull lent us her office space to work from in Newtown, and David Moutou helped me with planning out the event in detail. This is what David and I looked like after hours of strategising and thinking: all *wide eyed* with good ideas and a very full to-do list!

Pictured here are nine of the twelve young people who are working with us for the next eight weeks (and our fabulous fashion teacher, Emma, of course!). Almost all of these young people attend the Intensive English Centre (IEC) at Fairfield High School, learning both English literacy skills and the Australian education system. As a person whose learnt languages before, I’m *super* impressed with their willingness to jump on in and start interacting with Emma and me. And let me tell you, these young people have some great ideas about fashion and their own style. I’m really looking forward to seeing what we develop together.

Below is Emma when she and I were collecting supplies from Greenfield for our sewing workshops last week. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to work with Emma and learn from her expertise from WEFTshop.

And please check out below my new leggings that I bought at The Social Studio when I was there last week. These leggings showcase The Social Studio’s new digital printing capabilities, and the artwork is designed by one of their students. I love them! This is what I wore for our first Fairfield High School program day. Particularly *great* was when one young person asked if my neck got sore from wearing such heavy jewellery! I explained to him I’ve had years of *dedicated training* in large accessory wearing, so I’m doing just fine!

Tell: Handmade earrings and necklace, shrug from thrift store in the UK, Uniqlo skivvy, handmade dress found in op shop, The Social Studio leggings, Fluevog boots.

And here’s me on Friday, at some city meetings and working hard on The Social Outfit‘s longer-term plans. *Claps of joy* for wearing shorts in winter! xo

This is me on Tuesday, busy with both in-person and interstate telephone meetings.

I wanted to especially share with you some recent support The Hornery Institute (THI) have been offering to us at The Social Outfit. Andrew who works there has been super supportive by gathering data which helps us to explain why Newtown is a promising location for setting up our fashion social enterprise. As their own website explains, The Hornery Institute ‘is an independent not for profit organisation dedicated to enhancing the wellbeing of communities. Our purpose is to help make communities better places to live, learn, work and play…” And like they say, they certainly know their way around ‘place-based solutions’. I’ve got to say, I just *love* it when savvy people can access data and numbers from places like the ABS, and then use their expertise in business to help add to our ‘case for support’. So a big thanks to THI, Andrew, and Kate for getting on board. Also, and especially, thanks to our friend Sandy for introducing us all!

Share: I hope you know by now that I like to keep you updated with *tidbits* and stories about what keeps me busy each day; especially in relation to The Social Outfit. But on some days, and in some weeks, it feels like all I have to say is, “Head down, doing paperwork. Head down, doing planning.” This week feels a bit like that. And that sounds a bit boring to share, really… But, like a teacher who once trained me said, ‘You can’t take young people to Disneyland every day, Jackie, otherwise it holds no meaning’…

… So instead of dwelling on that too long, let’s take a quick close up look at this 1980s silk *gem* by Diane Freis. Chris – a regular ShowTellShare follower, and family friend – introduced me to Diane Freis when she found me a two-piece-1980s-divine-outfit in an op shop in Manly years ago (worn here and here). I’ve never looked back, and I now LOVE Diane and her crazy-colour-designs. So thanks, Chris! xo

Share: And, more generally, a short reflection list entitled, ‘Things I’m learning about myself by trying to maintain a WordPress Blog’:

I have persistence; which I personally think comes from years of honing my skills in searching for *gold* in op-shops! So yesterday I installed a better subscription service: it’s that *Follow* button on the bottom right hand side (for those already not subscribed), but I had to have a very *serious fight* with my computer for many hours. So boring! By 11pm I finally sorted it, with teeth gritted and a bullish attitude (i.e. “Apple-Option-Esc… I said APPLE-OPTION-ESCAPE!!!”). Phew!

Apparently I don’t Google-search like anyone else in the world does; because I hardly ever find useful links immediately (which sucks when trying to solve problems). This is in stark contrast to The First Hawaiian Officer who literally finds anything needed online in seconds. Pffffh.

I *LOVE* the support and joy of our growing online community here: across the blog, Facebook page and Twitter. Yesterday some of you let me know when the issues were cropping up (and then even still took the time to say nice things to me). So an ONGOING thanks too for your patience, and for coming back here and keeping me company. You rock!

I also had my brother in town again last night, and it was *lovely* getting to see him. How he makes me smile! xo

Share: *Technically* my eyebrows are purple here, but I’m just not sure the colour is coming through enough… may need to test more! And, of course, the *beloved* Ken Done large 1980s frames. I love. The Hawaiian First Officer does not. Fantastic!

Share: If all goes to plan on an ‘average’ day, I can get this whole web-posting process down to about an hour, even less if I’m super lucky. And then, some days everything just takes FOREVER. This is one of those days. I’ve been in Melbourne – and you would think I could have had my photo in front of a million *fun* things – but because I was running from one thing to another, I couldn’t stop for a photo. Never quite caught a break. And then I get home and loading photos isn’t working properly (…bloody Internetz…). Thing is, it’s actually like a metaphor for trying to set up a social enterprise start-up. Sometimes, some days, the plan just doesn’t work. It doesn’t necessarily mean everything has gone to shit… just maybe that it’s best to wait for another day to re-strategise and re-align. (That said, I will make sure I at least try and post something. Deliver at least on one part if I can; even if it’s small – and with no links working…)

Thankfully, too, I have a bit of a *zen* motif on today despite the difficulty: my new The Social Studio bright red cardigan / jacket. If anything helps to keep me focussing on what counts – it’s knowing my belief in The Social Studio and what it does. I *like* keeping my purpose front and centre: doing good in a fashion. xo

Share: A post from Sydney airport… via Parramatta. This morning I set off early to Parramatta City Council to work with the Community Capacity Building Team on their workshop about auspice relationships in the charity sector. My job was to tell my own stories of being involved in auspice agreements: which after 10 years in the sector, I realised is really quite varied now! I had a ball at the workshop and left feeling *energised* which is good, because I’ve been up since 5:30a.m. and now I’m heading down to Melbourne for the weekend. So I can do with all the energy I can get right now…

Share: What do you get when you cross a social entrepreneur with information on crowd-funding, with a boutique fashion business owner? Well hopefully what I’ll get is some great advice and good inspiration today for The Social Studio when I meet these two folks! I’ll keep you posted how I get on…

Share: Sometimes, when I’m having a crisis of confidence, the best thing for me to do is put on a really big pair of *spectacular* earrings… And, some high-waisted shorts. (Then, go and spend time with my friends and loved ones.)

SHOWTELLSHARE is my personal blog to show, tell and share my love of fashion and social projects.

Right now, I'm also setting up The Social Outfit in Sydney. We provide education, training and employment opportunities for people from new migrant and refugee communities. The Social Outfit believes creativity and fashion can lead to learning and empowerment. We're the sister organisation to The Social Studio in Melbourne.

I hope you enjoy what you see here as I work on my dreams of *doing good in a fashion*

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WHERE DID WE START?

Check out the *Good Fashion for Good* What Ken Be Done Challenge from 2010-2011.